Battle of Dahlen
| Battle of Dahlen | |
|---|---|
| Part of the 51°8′N 6°22′E / 51.133°N 6.367°E | |
| Result | Spanish victory |
Spanish Empire Sancho d'AvilaThe Battle of Dahlen was fought on April 23, 1568, between a Dutch rebel army led by Jean de Montigny, Lord of
Background
In 1568,
The first force to be put in arms was that of Hoogstraten, though he had to be replaced by Jean de Montigny, Lord of Villers, who crossed the frontier of the
Prelude
As soon as he received news of the invasion, Alba organized an improvised army to secure
Alba ordered the captain of his guard, don Sancho Dávila y Daza, to go after the rebel army with his own company of Spanish lances and those of Albanese lances under captain Nicolò Basta, and of horse arquebusiers under Pedro Montañés.[9] 300 horse in all,[8] which were later reinforced with the tercio of Londoño, Lope's cavalry, and four companies of German pikemen, numbering 300 men, from Colonel's Count of Eberstein regiment, from the Maastricht garrison.[9][10] In all the small Spanish army numbered about 1,600 men.[1]
While being searched by the Spanish, Villers and his army passed through Eijsden and advanced upon Roermond. There, they tried to enter the town pretending to be soldiers of the King of Spain, but the town's inhabitants were not fooled.[2][10] Then the rebels resorted to their weapons and attempted to seize the town's gates, only to be driven off.[8] Fearing that they would be caught by the Spanish, Villers decided to withdraw, taking the road to the Guelders exclave of Erkelenz.[1] There were some doubts on the Spanish side about what to do then.[2] Londoño advised caution,[8] but Dávila decided to pursue the rebels, seeking to gain a victory that would serve as a warning for them.[2]
Battle
Sancho Dávila went ahead with his cavalry and was informed by his scouts that the rebels were close to the village of Erkelenz.[10] There Villers found his path cut off because a nearby bridge over the Rur river had been demolished.[10] He decided to take the road to Dahlen, a small walled town in the Duchy of Jülich, while Dávila followed him and soon discovered the rebel army on the road between the two towns.[10]
Villers deployed his troops for the battle on a plain with some groves behind and a
After a brief reconnaissance, Dávila, together with the Count of Eberstein and the cavalry companies under captains don Alonso de Vargas and Nicolò Basta, charged across the plain and frontally lunged over the rebel squadrons, which they broke.[10] Villers then lost most of his cavalry and two flags.[1][2] He and some 1,300 men retreated in some order with part of the baggage and managed to reach Dahlen, under whose walls they entrenched in order to withstand a second attack.[1][2]
Villers covered his men behind a
The fight lasted half an hour, after which the Spaniards took the ravelin. Just a few rebels succeeded in escaping and sought refuge in Dahlen, climbing through scales;[2] the others were butchered.[2][3]
Aftermath
Villers was amongst those who escaped inside Dahlen, but was afterwards handed to the Spanish.[11] The Lord of Lumey, on the other hand, evaded capture. All the baggage, seven flags, a large number corslets, pikes, harquebuses, other weapons, and munitions were seized by the victors.[3] Some 2,000 rebels, most of whom were French, were killed, as opposed to light Spanish casualties. Shortly thereafter, the Spanish army was split up. Dávila went to Brussels with the foremost captives to execute them, the Count of Eberstein returned to Maastricht with his German pikemen, and Sancho de Londoño lodged his men at Roermond, where he ordered several prisoners – natives of the place – to be hanged.[2][3]
A month later, Louis of Nassau scored an important victory over the Spanish at Heiligerlee.[12] Shortly afterwards, however, the planned rebel invasion of Artois was defeated in the bailiwick of Hesdin.[7] The local Spanish forces under the Count of Roleux drove the rebels across the French frontier.[7] There, in Picardy, at Saint-Valery, the French royal army destroyed what remained of the Netherlander force.[7] On July 21, Alba decisively defeated Nassau at Jemmingen, which put end to the Dutch rebel campaign in Friesland.[13]
It would be many decades before the Dutch rebels finally capture Roermond, which came under the Dutch Republic's rule only in the final phase of the Eighty Years' War.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Motley, p. 160.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k (in Spanish) Cabrera de Córdoba, p. 484.
- ^ a b c d e (in Spanish) Carnero, p. 24.
- ^ Luis Cabrera de Córdoba mentioned 12 Spaniards killed and nearly 50 wounded. Cabrera de Córdoba, p. 484
- ^ Antonio Carnero put the Spanish loss as 20 killed and 50 wounded. Carnero, p. 24.
- ^ John Lothrop Motley credited the total Spanish loss as 20 men. Motley, p. 161.
- ^ a b c d e f Motley, p. 159.
- ^ a b c d e (in Spanish) Bentivoglio, p. 62.
- ^ a b c d e f (in Spanish) Cabrera de Córdoba, p. 483.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j (in Spanish) Carnero, p. 23.
- ^ Motley, p. 161.
- ^ Motley, p. 170.
- ^ Motley, p. 194.
Sources
- Bentivoglio, Guido (1687). Las guerras de Flandes. Antwerp: Geronymo Verdussen.
- Cabrera de Córdoba, Luis (1619). Filipe Segundo, Rey de España. Luis Sanchez.
- Carnero, Antonio (1625). Historia de las guerras ciuiles que ha auido en los estados de Flandes des del año 1559 hasta el de 1609 y las causas de la rebelion de dichos estados. Brussels: Juan de Meerbeque.
- Lothrop Motley, John (1883). The Rise of the Dutch Republic: A History. New York and London: Harper & Brothers. OCLC 631636.